


On the Day She Dies

by schneefink



Category: Bloodrights - N. Lee Wood
Genre: 5 Things, Future Fic, Gen, Mercy Killing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-26
Updated: 2018-09-26
Packaged: 2019-07-17 22:10:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16104836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/schneefink/pseuds/schneefink
Summary: "Swear to me: On the day she dies, you must hunt me down.""It would be my very great pleasure, sir.""And mine, Defender."Five times Kerrick kills Morgan.





	On the Day She Dies

1)  
"Defender," Morgan greeted when Kerrick entered his room. He'd been sitting on the bed and putting on his clothes, but when he saw Kerrick's face he immediately got up. "What happened?"

Kerrick wondered if it would have been smarter to wait and try to catch Morgan completely unawares. Maybe the act itself would have been easier. But he couldn't stand to wait. Any moment now his mind would comprehend what had happened, who he'd lost, and he'd be too paralyzed with grief too act. And act he must, because he'd made a promise, and any delay would only make it harder.

He could tell Morgan what had happened, so the man would at least know why he died. But Morgan was always expecting death, and Kerrick thought Morgan trusted him enough to know that if Kerrick delivered it to him, he must have a reason. Morgan didn't have to spend his last moments knowing that he'd failed to protect the women he'd sworn his life to.

"There's a problem," Kerrick just said, trying to keep his face impassive and yet knowing that Morgan would read the severity of the situation.

Morgan quickly finished getting dressed and then walked toward the door. Kerrick stood by to let him walk out first, which Morgan commented with a raised eyebrow. When Morgan had passed him, Kerrick shoved his dagger from behind into his neck and up into his skull. He'd watched Morgan kill men like this, and he tried to make it as quick and painless as possible.

 

2)  
Morgan was the one who questioned the prisoner. He didn't normally interrogate people, but here it satisfied both their need to know who was behind the attack and their desire to see the killer suffer. Besides, no-one would dare to deny Morgan access. The rumors that he was a half-demon from the Weird had only grown, and the prisoner had paled upon seeing him and clearly wished Morgan hadn't prevented him from committing suicide.

Kerrick made himself watch. It was important, he told himself. He needed to hear the information. The satisfaction he felt from seeing the man suffer was only a side-effect.

It didn't take long until Morgan found out who'd ordered the attack. After the prisoner gasped out the names, Morgan raised his arm as if to kill him; then he changed his mind and only stabbed his knife into his eyeball and kept it there. Kerrick approved. A quick death would be too merciful.

Kerrick didn't let himself think of what Antonya would have said.

Morgan turned, and Kerrick straightened. For a moment he thought he was looking at a hungry cat of prey, coiled to jump. "I'll find them," Morgan said, and his eyes promised bloodshed. He was grinning, but his expression was empty of even his usual excitement over an impending kill. There was just pure determination and bloodlust. Morgan would hunt those he held responsible and kill them brutally, and Kerrick couldn't deny that he would find it satisfying.

Morgan wouldn't stop there. Nothing would stop him, now that Antonya was dead.

Kerrick nodded. When Morgan was close enough, Kerrick lunged at him and with one quick motion broke his neck.

 

3)  
In her last few days the fever made Antonya delirious. She was lost to her surroundings: she kept calling for Kerrick and weeping when she couldn't find him even though he was right there every time. She called for her armsmen and others who were kept outside because of the fever, and for Briston and Father Andrae.

She even called for Morgan. The Assassin's face twitched, hands clenching around empty air, and he bowed and told his Lady that he was here, knowing that she wouldn't hear him. He kept his head down afterwards: this was an enemy he couldn't watch out for, and it had already found its mark.

He'd have to kill Morgan afterwards, Kerrick remembered, and at that bleak moment it seemed only right that he would have to go on alone.

Antonya stopped breathing in the early morning. Birds were singing outside, and Kerrick took a deep breath and reminded himself that he couldn't break down yet. He stood up and drew his sword.

Morgan saw him, but he didn't move. He was still staring at Antonya when Kerrick's sword sent him after her.

 

4)  
Morgan had about half a day's headstart, but it took Kerrick almost a week to catch up to him. Maybe he could have found him sooner: he should have noticed immediately when Morgan had left before Antonya's body had even become cold, and he could have involved more people in the search. He'd decided against it. He'd made a promise to Morgan, and he intended to fulfill it personally.

He wasn't sure himself how much of that was an excuse. Kerrick couldn't deny that part of him hadn't wanted to find Morgan too fast. At least not before Morgan had killed the person he was after, the person who was behind the attack on their Lady. Of all of them, Morgan was maybe the only one or at least the one with the best chance to take down a Guildmaster of the Assassins. It needed to be done, and Morgan could do it.

Except Morgan wouldn't stop at the Guildmaster, and Kerrick had promised to hunt him down before he went any further. Kerrick could take care of the rest of the revenge.

In the end, he was too late. When he found the dead body of the Guildmaster, he also found all of his servants dead – as well as his neighbor, who had been, as far as Kerrick could discern, completely uninvolved. There was a faint trail of blood drops leading out of the house that Morgan hadn't even tried to hide.

Kerrick found him in a stable. He appeared to be asleep, and Kerrick didn't stop to confirm before cutting his throat.

 

5)  
Antonya was fifty when she died: young to die from old age, but, as she joked, decades older than she'd expected to live. Kerrick didn't find it very funny. Antonya, however, seemed a strange kind of delighted when her physician speculated that it was her now-dead lizard's poison that was slowly killing her years later.

There had been enough time for Antonya to get all her affairs in order. Several things she deliberately didn't plan for, saying that it was her successors' job to decide the future of the country and seeming quite satisfied with that.

At one point, while speculating on what some of her retainers might do after her death, she looked at Kerrick and Morgan and hesitated, but realized that neither of them had any desire to talk about it and changed the topic.

Kerrick had always assumed that he would die before her, since he was a lot older than she was and in many more physical battles, and he was in no way prepared for the opposite. The only thing that kept the future after Antonya's death from being a complete unknown was his promise to Morgan to hunt him down. Both of them remembered it. And both of them were aware that Kerrick, while still a strong fighter, was no longer a match for Morgan, who'd appeared to barely have aged at all and was still as strong, fast, and nimble as he'd been decades ago.

Morgan was expecting the fight, so there was no way to surprise him, and thus no way for Kerrick to win. He would fight Morgan, and Morgan would kill him. Kerrick would follow Antonya into the grave, and he was fine with that. There was nothing for him after her death anyway. He only regretted that he would break his implicit promise to kill him to Morgan, but Morgan knew it wasn't by choice. Besides, some of Antonya's guards that Kerrick had trained were quite capable, and Morgan would be able to arrange contingency plans.

Her last few days Antonya was too weak to stand, which she was loudly unhappy about. She asked Kerrick to carry her to the window several times a day and took long naps in-between. She demanded that he kiss her and wiped away his tears. She asked Kerrick and Morgan to take care of each other with an ironic smile, and they both said that they would and exchanged glances afterwards. She died on a rainy day.

Kerrick didn't know how long he'd have stayed at her side if Morgan hadn't taken his arm. Morgan told the servants waiting outside that Antonya had died and then led Kerrick to an empty training hall.

"One last time, Defender?" Morgan asked.

Kerrick inclined his head, and they fought.

It quickly became apparent that Morgan wasn't giving it his all. He'd picked a sword, which wasn't his primary weapon, but Kerrick had watched him enough to know that he was better than this, and that several times he could have struck and didn't.

Morgan didn't want to win, Kerrick realized. He paused, took a step back and looked at him, and Morgan gave him a wry smile. Many years ago, when Morgan had asked Kerrick to hunt him down after Antonya's death, it had been out of determination not to become who he would be without her and the knowledge that when the moment came, he wouldn't be able to stop himself. Now, decades later, that determination had become stronger than his instinct of self preservation. And Morgan had decided that he wanted Kerrick to be the one to stop him.

Kerrick gripped his sword with renewed determination. The least he could do was give Morgan a clean death.

"It's been an honor," he said.

"Likewise, Defender," Morgan said. He died with a smile on his face.


End file.
